RFP for Travel Services

Organization: Pathfinder International Closing date: 8 Sep 2026 Background Pathfinder is driven by the conviction that all people, regardless of where they live, have the right to decide whether and when to have children, to exist free from fear and stigma, and to lead the lives they choose. Since 1957, we have partnered with local governments, communities, and health systems to remove barriers to critical sexual and reproductive health services. Together, we expand access to contraception, promote healthy pregnancies, save women’s lives, and stop the spread of new HIV infections, wherever the need is most urgent. Our work ensures millions of women, men, and young people are able to choose their own paths forward. Description of Assignment The overall goal of the RFP process is to select a highly collaborative, world class agency partner with the experience, expertise and capability to provide full travel agent services, integrate with International ISOS Travel Ready, Travel Tracker. Please also indicate whether you have other experience with integrating with Healix, Everest, and Berkley. Pathfinder is currently seeking a vendor firm to provide the following services: • Provide domestic and/or international airline, or railway tickets at the most favorable rate available to meet all arrival and departures times at the locations requested by all Pathfinders globally. • Ability to request Pathfinder required charge codes from Travelers prior to booking travel. Ability to provide Pathfinder with a report showing reservation and assigned charge codes. • Have and maintain a list of locations where Pathfinder does not approve of to transit through. • Arrange hotel accommodation, if requested. Pathfinder currently has negotiated rates with hotels, however; if provider is able to provide more aggressive corporate rates, please propose this as an “add on service” • Capability to sync with International SOS (forward the Passenger Name Records (PNRs) of all tickets to ISOS travel tracker) for live connection and issuing of pre-travel briefing documents. Please also indicate whether you have other experience with integrating with Healix, Everest, and Berkley. • Maintain additional authorization step for purchase for travel to or through countries designated as High or Extreme risk in International SOS rating system. • Ability to integrate with UKG. • Formulate, arrange, and provide all trip itineraries taking full advantage of any and all governmental, corporate, group, and/or seasonal discount rates available. • Demonstrate a secure server for the storage of PII (personal identifying information) and organizational information. • Demonstrate the ability to communicate with passengers via various methods [i.e skype, WhatsApp, etc] in addition to phone and email. • Demonstrate the ability to work across all time zones. Proposal Guidelines and Instructions Offerors will be required to submit two electronically sealed proposals, one a technical proposal and the other a cost proposal. All proposals must be signed and valid for a minimum of sixty (60) days. Your proposal should provide basic information about your Company/Individual and relevant service offerings. It should have a section addressing each of the following areas: • Company/Individual Profile • Past Performance • Customer Service • Technical Approach (offeror will be evaluated based on their responsiveness to the Scope of Work) • References • Relationship disclosure and mitigation plan • Key Personnel Responses should include the following information: • Technical Proposal Company/Individual Profile • Company’s values, mission and customer service approach and how they relate to your performance Description of the company’s travel system, backend and automation technology including any tools to automate travel approval, quality control and auto-ticketing Company’s designation as small business, veteran owned, minority owned, etc. Past Performance • Description of experience serving small to mid-size International NGOs/ small to mid-size businesses with a wide geographic footprint, stretched over numerous time zones Average customer size and industry/countries in which customers operate in. Customer Service • Average length of time that travelers and arrangers should expect to wait for a return phone call or email with regards to their travel arrangements Availability of backup agents to provide to the needs of customers during busy times Ability of company to provide VIP/priority service for select travelers Capability to work with various time zones Accessibility during holidays and off-peak/nontraditional working hours. After hours and weekend service arrangement Brief description of the policy or methods for addressing customer service issues or complaints. Technical Approach • Online/in person training program to ensure easy transition and adoption of the new system Description of types of management reports that are available Technology offerings that allow any billing, tracking or reporting tools Outline of fares available to agency (i.e. nonprofit fares, humanitarian) Ability to integrate with International SOS Travel Ready and Travel Tracker. Please also indicate whether you have other experience with integrating with Healix, Everest, and Berkley. Capability to ensure security of travelers’ private information Description of any special rate agreements with hotels or car rental agencies Describe your policies and procedures for ensuring compliance with Pathfinder’s travel policy? How would you ensure best value to Pathfinder? References – pass/fail • Submit two written (2) client references for the organization • Provide any other information to demonstrate the Contractor’s capability in relation to the Scope of Work Relationship disclosure – pass/fail • Describe any current or past relationships your organization may have with Pathfinder, and if it is a potential conflict of interest. If there is a potential conflict of interest, please explain how this risk will be mitigated. • Describe any personal or familial relationships any employee of the Contractor has with any employee of Pathfinder. If there is a relationship, please explain how any conflict of interest risk will be mitigated. • Disclosure does not automatically disqualify offeror. Key Personnel • Describe the key personnel to be utilized on the engagement along with resumes of key personnel. Indicate their degree of expertise and prior experience, which would be appropriate for the engagement; • Please include resumes of the proposed key personnel (max 2 pages each) • Cost Proposal Provide detailed and complete information on the setup costs that will be incurred by Pathfinder International. Such costs must include all items that will be from your company and any subcontractors. • Provide detailed and complete information for each program component. Include all ongoing fees and costs. • For any services based on monthly management fees, please provide a summary of what the fee will include and what additional fees may be incurred. • For services billed on an itemized basis, please provide estimates for production costs, for creative services, etc. Evaluation Criteria In evaluating the proposals, Pathfinder International will seek the best value for money rather than the lowest priced proposal. Pathfinder will use a two-stage selection procedure: • the first stage will evaluate the Technical Proposal. The technical proposal opening will be attended only by Pathfinders, as no information other than who submitted an offer will be read out at this stage. the second stage will evaluate the Cost Proposal for proposals that pass the Technical Proposal evaluation. Only proposals with an average score of 70 and above will be considered eligible for stage 2 Contractors passing stage 1, will be invited to a public cost proposal opening. Attendance is not mandatory and the cost proposal opening will be shared with all eligible contractors. Specifically, the selection committee will evaluate each proposal upon the following criteria: Evaluation Criteria- Weight (Total of 100 Points) Bid Submission • Bid submitted on time - Pass/Fail • Offeror is eligible to receive funding per background checks - Pass/Fail • Any potential conflict of interest is sufficiently mitigated - Pass/Fail Past Performance - 25 Points • Description of experience serving small to mid-size International NGOs/ small to mid-size businesses with a wide geographic footprint, stretched over numerous time zones • Average customer size and industry/countries in which customers operate in. Customer Service - 25 Points • Average length of time that travelers and arrangers should expect to wait for a return phone call or email with regards to their travel arrangements • Availability of backup agents to provide to the needs of customers during busy times • Capability to work with various time zones • Accessibility during holidays and off-peak/nontraditional working hours. After hours and weekend service arrangement • Brief description of the policy or methods for addressing customer service issues or complaints. Technical Approach - 40 Points • Online/in person training program to ensure easy transition and adoption of the new system • Description of types of management reports that are available • Technology offerings that allow any billing, tracking or reporting tools • Outline of fares available to agency (i.e. nonprofit fares, humanitarian) • Ability to integrate with International SOS Travel Ready and Travel Tracker. Please also indicate whether you have other experience with integrating with Healix, Everest, and Berkley. • Capability to ensure security of travelers’ private information • Description of any special rate agreements with hotels or car rental agencies • Describe your policies and procedures for ensuring compliance with Pathfinder’s travel policy? How would you ensure best value to Pathfinder? • Ability to work globally. All Pathfinder offices will be using the same travel services, please demonstrate your ability to work in multiple time zones. References - 5 points • Submit two written (2) client references for the organization. • Provide any other information to demonstrate the Contractor’s capability in relation to the Scope of Work. Key Personnel -5 points • Describe the key personnel to be utilized on the engagement alongwith resumes of key personnel. Indicate their degree of expertise and priorexperience, which would be appropriate for the engagement; • Please include resumes of the proposed key personnel (max 2 pages each) Pathfinder is not bound to accept the lowest or any proposal and reserves the right to accept any proposal in whole or in part and to reject any or all proposals. Pathfinder shall not be legally bound by any award notice issued for this RFP until a contract is duly signed and executed with the winning offeror. The evaluator will tally all the individual scores for each section and calculate the total score. If the total number points meet or exceeds the 70 point threshold, the suppliers cost proposal will be eligible for consideration. The score for the cost proposal will be calculated in the following manner: Cost proposal score = 100 x Lowest cost/ cost of the proposal under consideration. The lowest cost proposal will receive the full 100 points. The total score will be calculated as follows: Total Score= Technical proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 70 plus (+) Cost proposal score of the proposal under consideration multiplied by 30. Evaluation of Platform/Demo Presentation As part of this RFP process, Pathfinder reserves the right to conduct interviews with bidders, inclusive of presentation and demonstration of their platforms which would be evaluated in determining the overall winning bid. How to apply Inquiries If you have any questions/inquiries, please e-mail procurement@pathfinder.org no later than close of business August 24, 2026**.** The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line. Responses will be posted to all known offerors. As part of this RFP process, Pathfinder reserves the right to conduct interviews with bidders, inclusive of Platform presentation or Demos. Proposal Deadline All written responses to this RFP must be received by Pathfinder no later than 5:00pm (Washington, D.C. time) on September 08, 2026. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line/on the envelope. Please email the quote and other information directly to: Procurement@pathfinder.org , Pathfinder International, 1015 15th ST. NW,, STE 1100, Washington, DC 20005. Please label each proposal attachment. One should be labeled technical proposal and the other Cost proposal. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the reference line. Modification If at any time prior to award Pathfinder deems there to be a need for a significant modification to the terms and conditions of this RFP, Pathfinder will issue such a modification as a written RFP amendment to all competing offerors. No oral statement of any person shall in any manner be deemed to modify or otherwise affect any RFP term or condition, and no offeror shall rely on any such statement. Such amendments are the exclusive method for this purpose. Resulting Award Single contract: As a result of this solicitation, Pathfinder anticipates engaging a single independent contractor/company. Pathfinder reserves the right to split the SOW and make multiple awards. Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in Annex A. Part A of this annex will only apply to USG-funded assignments. Payment Terms Pathfinder anticipates entering into a cost-reimbursable fixed-cost contract with the selected contractor. Terms Pathfinder reserves the right to cancel this solicitation at any point and is under no obligation to issue a subcontract as a result of this solicitation. Pathfinder will not reimburse any expenses related to the preparation of any proposal related materials or delivery. Confidentiality All information disclosed by either party regarding this RFP is confidential and shall be treated as such. Agreement Any resulting contract will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the annex. See Annex A Thank you Procurement Department Pathfinder International